Automation and security application store suggestions based on claims data

ABSTRACT

A method, system, and computer-readable medium that facilitate the reception of usage data about the utilization of an intelligent home system and insurance claims data and recommend intelligent home system products based on the claims data. The method, system, and computer-readable medium facilitate the analysis of the claims data to determine whether to recommend intelligent home system products and which, if any, intelligent home system products to recommend. Recommendations may be generated by comparing a user&#39;s usage data to the claims data. Recommendations may be generated by comparing the usage data to products related to the claims submitted by one or more similar claimants in the claims data. Recommendations may be presented to a user if the intelligent home system.

FIELD OF INVENTION

This disclosure generally relates to computer networking, particularlythe networking of automation and/or security products in a building orhome.

BACKGROUND

As computer and computer networking technology has become less expensiveand more widespread, more and more devices have started to incorporatedigital “smart” functionalities. For example, controls and sensorscapable of interfacing with a network can now be incorporated intodevices such as appliances, security systems, light switches, and watervalves. Such smart devices may be fully or partially integrated into aintelligent home or intelligent building system. These smart devices maybe able to prevent or ameliorate losses leading to, for example,homeowner's or renter's insurance claims. However, for a smart device tobe able to prevent or ameliorate a loss, the device must first beinstalled. After all, an automatic gas valve to stop gas flow to thestove will not prevent a fire in the kitchen from becoming explosive ifthe automatic gas valve is not present. Accordingly, it may beadvantageous to recommend various smart devices to user of anintelligent home or intelligent building system based on the insuranceclaims of other users

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

A method for recommending intelligent home system products to a user ofan intelligent home system including: (1) receiving usage data about theuser's utilization of the intelligent home system, wherein theintelligent home system includes a plurality of installed devices, andwherein the usage data is associated with a user account information,includes usage data about each of the plurality of installed devices,and is stored on a computer-readable medium; (2) receiving claims dataabout a plurality of insurance claims, wherein each insurance claimincludes one or more of information about the loss or information aboutthe claimant; (3) analyzing the usage data and claims data to identifyone or more intelligent home system products to recommend to the userwhen it is determined to recommend one or more intelligent home systemproducts; and (4) presenting to the user the one or more intelligenthome system products when it is determined to recommend one or moreintelligent home system products wherein steps (1) to (4) are performedusing one of one or more processors.

In an embodiment, a computer system including: a processor; and aprogram memory storing executable instructions that when executed by theprocessor cause the computer system to: receive usage data about theuser's utilization of the intelligent home system, wherein theintelligent home system includes a plurality of installed devices, andwherein the usage data is associated with a user account, includes usagedata about each of the plurality of installed devices, and is stored ona computer-readable medium; receive claims data about a plurality ofinsurance claims, wherein each insurance claim includes one or more ofinformation about the loss or information about the claimant; analyzethe usage data to identify one or more intelligent home system productsto recommend to the user when it is determined to recommend one or moreintelligent home system products; and present to the user the one ormore intelligent home system products when it is determined to recommendone or more intelligent home system products.

In another embodiment, a tangible, computer-readable medium storingexecutable instructions that when executed by a processor of a computersystem cause the computer system to: receive usage data about the user'sutilization of the intelligent home system, wherein the intelligent homesystem includes a plurality of installed devices, and wherein the usagedata is associated with a user account, includes usage data about eachof the plurality of installed devices, and is stored on acomputer-readable medium; receive claims data about a plurality ofinsurance claims, wherein each insurance claim includes one or more ofinformation about the loss or information about the claimant; analyzethe usage data to identify one or more intelligent home system productsto recommend to the user when it is determined to recommend one or moreintelligent home system products; and present to the user the one ormore intelligent home system products if when is determined to recommendone or more intelligent home system products.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The figures described below depict various aspects of the system andmethods disclosed herein. It should be understood that each figuredepicts an embodiment of a particular aspect of the disclosed system andmethods, and that each of the figures is intended to accord with apossible embodiment thereof. Further, wherever possible, the followingdescription refers to the reference numerals included in the followingfigures, in which features depicted in multiple figures are designatedwith consistent reference numerals.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a computer network, a computerserver, an intelligent home system controller, and intelligent homesystem products on which an exemplary intelligent home productrecommendation system and method may operate in accordance with thedescribed embodiments;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an intelligent home systemcontroller;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary intelligent home product recommendationmethod for implementing the intelligent home product recommendationsystem in accordance with the presently described embodiments;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary intelligent home product recommendationback-end method for implementing the intelligent home productrecommendation system in accordance with the presently describedembodiments;

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary illustration of how various intelligenthome system products may be related to a particular type of loss ordamage;

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary home with intelligenthome system products installed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Although the following text sets forth a detailed description ofnumerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the legalscope of the invention is defined by the words of the claims set forthat the end of this patent. The detailed description is to be construedas exemplary only and does not describe every possible embodiment, asdescribing every possible embodiment would be impractical, if notimpossible. One could implement numerous alternate embodiments, usingeither current technology or technology developed after the filing dateof this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.

It should also be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined inthis patent using the sentence “As used herein, the term ‘_(——————)’ ishereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence, there is no intentto limit the meaning of that term, either expressly or by implication,beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such term should not beinterpreted to be limited in scope based on any statement made in anysection of this patent (other than the language of the claims). To theextent that any term recited in the claims at the end of this patent isreferred to in this patent in a manner consistent with a single meaning,that is done for sake of clarity only so as to not confuse the reader,and it is not intended that such claim term be limited, by implicationor otherwise, to that single meaning. Finally, unless a claim element isdefined by reciting the word “means” and a function without the recitalof any structure, it is not intended that the scope of any claim elementbe interpreted based on the application of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixthparagraph.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary intelligent homeproduct recommendation system 100. The high-level architecture includesboth hardware and software applications, as well as various datacommunications channels for communicating data between the varioushardware and software components. The intelligent home productrecommendation system 100 may be roughly divided into front-endcomponents 102 and back-end components 104. The front-end components 102are disposed within one or more homes 130. It will be appreciated thatwhile the word “home” is used to refer to the site at which theexemplary embodiment is installed, the exemplary intelligent homeproduct recommendation system 100 could be installed in any number oflocations such as a single-family house, apartment, condominium, or evennon-residential locations such as businesses or warehouses. Further,while some of the exemplary front-end components 102 are described asbeing disposed “within” a home, it will be understood that some or allof the front-end components 102 may be installed outside or nearby ahome. Further still, some or all of the front-end components 102 (forexample, the intelligent home system controller 106R discussed below)may be remote from the home 130 (e.g., the functions described here inas being performed by the intelligent home system controller 106 may beperformed all or in part by products connected to the home 130 over thenetwork 132 in a distributed processing or cloud computing arrangement).The front-end components 102 may include an intelligent home systemcontroller 106, a control device 110, a sensor 112, an appliance 114, adisplay 116, and/or an input device 118. The front-end components 102may be connected to each other via a link 120 and/or connected to anetwork 108 by the link 120. The link 120 may be a wired connection, awireless connection (e.g., one of the IEEE 802.11 standards), an opticalconnection, etc.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary intelligent homesystem controller 106. The intelligent home system controller 106 mayhave a controller 202 that is operatively connected to the database 210via a link 218. It should be noted that, while not shown, additionaldatabases may be linked to the controller 202 in a known manner. Thecontroller 202 may include a program memory 204, a processor 206 (may becalled a microcontroller or a microprocessor), a random-access memory(RAM) 208, and an input/output (I/O) circuit 214, all of which may beinterconnected via an address/data bus 216. It should be appreciatedthat although only one microprocessor 206 is shown, the controller 202may include multiple microprocessors 206. Similarly, the memory of thecontroller 202 may include multiple RAMs 208 and multiple programmemories 204. Although the I/O circuit 214 is shown as a single block,it should be appreciated that the I/O circuit 214 may include a numberof different types of I/O circuits. The program memory 204 and/or theRAM 208 may include a graphical user interface 220, an intelligent homesystem application 222, a plurality of software applications 224, and aplurality of software routines 226. The graphical user interface 220 maybe a set of instructions that when executed by the processor 206 causethe display(s) 116 and the input device(s) 118 to display information toa user and/or receive input from the user. As used herein, the terms“user” or “customer” refers to a user of the intelligent home productrecommendation system described below and may be used interchangeably.The intelligent home system application 222 may be a set of instructionsthat when executed by the processor 206 cause the intelligent homesystem controller 106 to carry out the functions associated with theexemplary intelligent home product recommendation system 100 describedherein. The RAM(s) 208 and program memories 204 may be implemented assemiconductor memories, magnetically readable memories, and/or opticallyreadable memories, for example. The controller 202 may also beoperatively connected to the network 108 via a link 120. The intelligenthome system controller 106 further includes a database 210 or other datastorage mechanism (e.g., one or more hard disk drives, optical storagedrives, solid state storage devices, etc.). The database 210 is adaptedto store data related to the operation of the intelligent home productrecommendation system 100. Such data might include, for example,customer data collected by the intelligent home system controller 106from the intelligent home products 110, 112, 114, 116, 118 pertaining tothe intelligent home product recommendation system 100 such as sensordata, power usage data, control data, input data, other data pertainingto the usage of the intelligent home products, user profiles andpreferences, application data for the plurality of applications 224,routine data for the plurality of routines 226, or other kinds of data.The intelligent home system controller 106 may access data stored in thedatabase 210 when executing various functions and tasks associated withthe operation of the intelligent home product recommendation system 100.

Referring again to FIG. 1, as an alternative to or in addition to theintelligent home system controller 106, a remote intelligent home systemcontroller 106R may be used to replace or augment the functions of theintelligent home system controller 106. The remote intelligent homesystem controller 106R may be a computer system or server connected tothe network 132 by link 128. Further, the remote intelligent home systemcontroller 106R may be implemented using distributed processing or“cloud computing” wherein the functions of the remote intelligent homesystem controller 106R may be performed by one or more computers orservers connected to the network 132. The remote intelligent home systemcontroller 106R may be implemented a server 140 in the back end 104 orin a similar server in the front end 102.

A control device 110 may be any of a number of devices that allowautomatic and/or remote control of systems in the home 130. For example,the control device 110 may be a thermostat that can be adjustedaccording to inputs from the intelligent home system controller 106 toincrease or decrease the temperature in the home 130. Such a thermostatmay control the temperature in a room and/or the entire home 130. Thecontrol device 110 may also be a light switch that can be adjustedaccording to inputs from the intelligent home system controller 106 toturn on, turn off, brighten, and/or dim lights in the home. Such lightswitches may be coupled to all the lights in a room and/or an individuallight fixture. The control device 110 may be an automated power outletthat can be adjusted according to inputs from the intelligent homesystem controller 106 to apply power and/or remove power from an outlet.Such an automated power outlet may, for example, allow for remoteturning off of a television that was left on with a user command,automatic turning off of an electric stove that was left on after athreshold amount of time has elapsed since motion was detected in thehome 130, automatic turning on of a lamp when motion is detected in theroom, etc. Similarly, the control device 110 may be an automated circuitbreaker that can be adjusted according to input from the intelligenthome system controller 106 to automatically and/or remotely apply orremove power to the entire home 130. The control device 110 may be anautomated water valve that can be adjusted according to inputs from theintelligent home system controller 106 to adjust the flow of water inand around the home 130 (e.g., turning on or turning off sprinklers,turning on a pump to prevent the basement from flooding, etc.). Thecontrol device 110 may be an automated gas valve that can be adjustedaccording to input from the intelligent home system controller 106 toadjust the flow of gas in and around the home 130. Such an automated gasvalve may, for example, allow for automatic and/or remote shutting offof gas during a fire or earthquake, etc.

The sensor 112 may be any of a number of sensors that may gatherinformation about conditions in the home 130 and/or activities in thehome 130. For example, the sensor 112 may be a smoke detector which maysend an input to the intelligent home system controller 106 indicatingthe presence of smoke in the home 130. The sensor 112 may also be a partof the thermostat discussed above which may send input to theintelligent home system controller 106 indicating the temperature in thehome 130. The sensor 112 may be a water sensor which may send input tothe intelligent home system controller 106 indicating, for example, theflow rate of a faucet, the presence of water in the basement, a roofleak in the attic, whether the sprinkler system is turned on, etc. Thesensor 112 may be an energy monitor which may measure the power usage ofa light fixture, an appliance, an entire room, the entire home 130, etc.The sensor 112 may be any of a number of security sensors. Such securitysensors may include motion sensors, door sensors (to detect the opening,closing, and/or breaking of a door), window sensors (to detect theopening, closing, and/or break of a window), etc. The sensor 112 may bea camera and/or a microphone which may send visual and/or audible inputto the intelligent home system controller 106.

The appliance 114 may be any of a number of appliances that may bepresent in the home 130 and communicating with the intelligent homesystem controller 106. Each appliance 114 may be a “smart” appliance.For example, the appliance 114 may have an integrated computer systemthat helps to optimize the operation of the appliance 114. Such anintegrated computer system may assist, for example, with schedulingusage of the appliance (e.g., a smart dishwasher that will wait to runthe dishwashing cycle until off-peak hours), sending usage reports tothe intelligent home system controller 106, sending sensor data to theintelligent home system controller 106, receiving commands from theintelligent home system controller 106, etc. An appliance 114 may be arefrigerator, dishwasher, a washing machine, a dryer, an oven, stove, amicrowave, a coffeemaker, a blender, a stand mixer, a television, avideo game console, a cable box or digital video recorder, etc.Additionally, an appliance 114 may also be a household robot (e.g., arobotic vacuum cleaner).

The display 116 may be any of a number of visual and/or audible outputdevices that may be used to display output from the intelligent homesystem controller 106. Such output may include sensor readings, alarmmessages, alerts, reports on the usage of various system in the home(e.g., electricity, water, etc), a list of supplies to purchase (e.g., asmart refrigerator has reported that the milk and eggs are running outand recommends to purchase some of each), video or images from a camera,a user interface operating in conjunction with the input device 118,etc. The display 116 may also display data generated outside the home130, such as information about weather conditions, public safetyannouncements, sports scores, advertisements, television channels,videos, etc. The display 116 may be a monitor (e.g., an LCD monitor, aCRT monitor), a television, a screen integrated into a control panel ofthe intelligent home system controller 106, a screen integrated into anappliance 114, etc. The display 116 may be used to present a graphicaluser interface 220 with which the user can interact with the intelligenthome system controller 106. Additionally, the display 116 may alsoinclude or be connected to speakers (not shown). Such speakers may beused to present information from the intelligent home system controller106, for example, in connection with the graphical user interface 220,an audible alarm, etc. The display 116 may also be a display that isremote from the home 130. For example, the display 116 may be a remotedisplay 116R (e.g., a smartphone, tablet computer, or personal computer,etc) that sends and receives information over the network 132 over awireless connection 124 (e.g., a cellular network connection, an 802.11connection) or a wired connection 126. The remote display 116R mayinclude a user interface to display information about the intelligenthome system to a user via an application installed on the smartphone,tablet computer, or laptop computer. The remote input device 116R mayreceive information from the intelligent home system controller 106 anddisplay information about one or more of the control device 110, sensor112, appliance 114, display 116, or input device 118. For example, auser may use the application on his smartphone 116R to receive an alertfrom the intelligent home system controller 106 over the wirelessconnection 124. Of course, it will be understood that devices other thana smartphone, tablet computer, or personal computer may be a remoteinput device 116R.

The input device 118 may be any of a number of input devices that may beused to input data and/or commands to the intelligent home systemcontroller 106. For example, the input device 118 may be a keyboard,mouse, remote control, etc. The input device 118 may also be integratedwith the display 116, for example, as a touchscreen. The input device118 may also be a microphone which can receive verbal commands from auser. The input device 118 may be used to receive commands in connectionwith the graphical user interface 220, the intelligent home systemapplication 222, and/or any other applications or routines associatedwith the exemplary intelligent home product recommendation system 100.The input device 118 may be a remote input device 118R (e.g., asmartphone, tablet computer, or personal computer, etc) that sends andreceives information over the network 132 over a wireless connection 124(e.g., a cellular network connection, an 802.11 connection) or a wiredconnection 126. The remote input device 118R may receive user input viaan application installed on the smartphone, tablet computer, or laptopcomputer that may present a user interface to display information aboutthe intelligent home system and receive user input. The remote inputdevice 118R may send commands (e.g., activate, deactivate, toggle, etc.)to the intelligent home system controller 106 to affect one or more ofthe control device 110, sensor 112, appliance 114, display 116, or inputdevice 118. For example, a user may use the application on hissmartphone 118R to turn off his stove over the wireless connection 124.Of course, it will be understood that devices other than a smartphone,tablet computer, or personal computer may be a remote input device 118R.

The front-end components 102 communicate with the back-end components104 via the network 132. For example, the intelligent home systemproducts 106-118 situated in the home 130 may be connected to thenetwork 132 via the home network 108 and the link 122. The link 122 maybe a wired connection, a wireless connection (e.g., one of the IEEE802.11 standards), an optical connection, etc. The remote products 106R,116R, 118R may be similarly connected to the network 132 over respectivelinks 128, 124, and 126. The network 132 may be a proprietary network, asecure public internet, a virtual private network or some other type ofnetwork, such as dedicated access lines, plain ordinary telephone lines,satellite links, combinations of these, etc. Where the network 132comprises the Internet, data communications may take place over thenetwork 132 via an Internet communication protocol. The back-endcomponents 104 include a server 140. The server 140 may include one ormore computer processors adapted and configured to execute varioussoftware applications and components of the intelligent home productrecommendation system 100, in addition to other software applications.

Similarly to the intelligent home system controller 106, the server 140may have a controller 155 that is operatively connected to the database146 via a link 156. It should be noted that, while not shown, additionaldatabases may be linked to the controller 155 in a known manner. Thecontroller 155 may include a program memory 160, a processor 162 (may becalled a microcontroller or a microprocessor), a random-access memory(RAM) 164, and an input/output (I/O) circuit 166, all of which may beinterconnected via an address/data bus 165. It should be appreciatedthat although only one microprocessor 162 is shown, the controller 155may include multiple microprocessors 162. Similarly, the memory of thecontroller 155 may include multiple RAMs 164 and multiple programmemories 160. Although the I/O circuit 166 is shown as a single block,it should be appreciated that the I/O circuit 166 may include a numberof different types of I/O circuits. The RAM(s) 164 and program memories160 may be implemented as semiconductor memories, magnetically readablememories, and/or optically readable memories, for example. Thecontroller 155 may also be operatively connected to the network 132 viaa link 135. The server 140 further includes a database 146 or other datastorage mechanism (e.g., one or more hard disk drives, optical storagedrives, solid state storage devices, etc.). The database 146 is adaptedto store data related to the operation of the intelligent home productrecommendation system 100. Such data might include, for example,customer data collected by the intelligent home system controller 106pertaining to the intelligent home product recommendation system 100 anduploaded to the server 140 such as data pertaining to the usage of theintelligent home products, data pertaining to insurance claims filed bycustomers, customer profiles, information about various intelligent homeproducts that are available for installation, web page templates and/orweb pages, or other kinds of data. The server 140 may access data storedin the database 146 when executing various functions and tasksassociated with the operation of the intelligent home productrecommendation system 100.

As shown in FIG. 1, the program memory 160 and/or the RAM 164 may storevarious applications for execution by the microprocessor 162. Forexample, a user-interface application 236 may provide a user interfaceto the server 140. The user interface application 236 may, for example,allow a network administrator to configure, troubleshoot, or testvarious aspects of the server's operation, or otherwise to accessinformation thereon. A server application 238 operates to transmit andreceive information from one or more intelligent home system controllers106 on the network 132. The server application 238 may aggregate usageand/or claims data and select intelligent home system products torecommend to the user as discussed herein. The server application 238may be a single module 238 or a plurality of modules 238A, 238B. Whilethe server application 238 is depicted in FIG. 1 as including twomodules, 238A and 238B, the server application 238 may include anynumber of modules accomplishing tasks related to implantation of theserver 140. By way of example, the module 238A may populate and transmitthe client application data and/or may receive and evaluate inputs fromthe user to receive a data access request, while the module 238B maycommunicate with one or more of the back end components 104 to fulfill adata access request.

Although the intelligent home product recommendation system 100 is shownto include one server 140, one home 130, one intelligent home systemcontroller 106, one control device 110, one sensor 112, one appliance114, one display 116, and one input device 118 it should be understoodthat different numbers of servers 140, homes 130, intelligent homesystem controllers 106, control devices 110, sensors 112, appliances114, displays 116, and input devices 118 may be utilized. For example,the system 100 may include a plurality of servers 140 and hundreds ofhomes 130, all of which may be interconnected via the network 132.Further, each home 130 may include more than one of each of anintelligent home system controller 106, a control device 110, a sensor112, an appliance 114, a display 116, and an input device 118. Forexample, a large home 130 may include two intelligent home systemcontrollers 106 that are connected to multiple control devices 110,multiple sensors 112, multiple appliances 114, multiple displays 116,and/or input devices 118. Additionally several homes 130 may be located,by way of example rather than limitation, in separate geographiclocations from each other, including different areas of the same city,different cities, or different states. Furthermore, the processingperformed by the one or more servers 140 may be distributed among aplurality of servers in an arrangement known as “cloud computing.”According to the disclosed example, this configuration may provideseveral advantages, such as, for example, enabling near real-timeuploads and downloads of information as well as periodic uploads anddownloads of information.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an exemplary intelligent home systemproduct recommendation method 300 implemented on the system 100. One ormore customers who live in a home 130 may utilize the devices 106-118 asdescribed herein (block 302). The system 100 monitors the usage of thedevices 106-118 and records customer usage data as described herein. Thecustomer may then use the user interface 220 and access his or heraccount (block 304). For example, the user interface 220 may be used bycustomers to purchase additional products, pay bills, adjust settingsfor products already installed, access third party information, etc. Thecustomer's usage data may be transmitted to the server 140 (or otherback-end 104 component) for processing over the network 132 (block 308).Such transmissions may occur as the data is generated or may occurduring low utilization times of the front-end components 102 (e.g., lateat night when many devices may be turned off). Further, suchtransmissions may occur sporadically and/or periodically. Afterreceiving the customer's usage data, the server 140 may store the usagedata (block 310) and analyze the usage data (block 312). Additionally,the server 140 may also receive insurance claim data (block 314) andanalyze the insurance claim data (316). The server 140 may then use theanalyzed usage data and analyzed insurance claim data to generate arecommended products list (block 318) and output one or more recommendedproducts (block 320). The activities associated with blocks 310-320 arediscussed with further detail below in relation to FIG. 4. The displayof one or more recommended products may occur at a one of the displays116 at the user interface 220 discussed above or it may be over a webbrowser on a personal computer unconnected to the system 100 (block306). Furthermore, recommendations may be displayed using direct mail orother printed materials in addition or as an alternative to display on acomputer screen. The recommended product list may be presented as asidebar, box, pop-up, featured item, etc. on a user interface 220associated with the system 100.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an exemplary intelligent home systemproduct recommendation back-end method 400 implemented on the system 100in blocks 310-320 as shown in FIG. 3. Particularly the method 400 may beperformed on the server 140. The server 140 may analyze the customer'susage data and rank the products by usage (block 402). The usage datamay be associated with user account data. The user account data maycontain biographical (e.g., name, insurance policy number), demographic(e.g., age, gender, marital status, number of children/pets, etc.),economic (e.g., yearly household income, net worth, etc.), andgeographic (e.g., the address of the claimant, latitude and longitude ofthe claimant, the elevation of the claimant, etc.) information about theuser. The products may be ranked according to frequency of use. Forexample, in an embodiment wherein a particular home 130 includes anoutlet control module, a light control module, and a motion sensor andthe usage log indicates that the light control module is used morefrequently than the outlet control module, then the light control modulemay be ranked before the outlet control module. It may be beneficial torank the products in the customer's system to determine which productsare most useful to the customer and for which the user may be morelikely to entertain a recommendation to upgrade or buy a relatedproduct. However, it will be understood that some kinds of products suchas interior light switches may be used more frequently than otherproducts such as automated outdoor security cameras because a user isexpected to have more interaction with the former. To account for thisknown difference, it may be advantageous to weigh the usage rankingseither by using the user's historical data or by using data from theusage of many customers. Accordingly, the ranked customer product listmay be able to detect an increase or decrease in the usage of one ormore products in the former case and to detect an extraordinary amountof usage in the latter case. Additionally, the ranked customer productlist may be an M-dimensional vector, where M is the number of productsinstalled in the home 130. The vector may be comprised of a sum ofdimensions each multiplied by coefficients (e.g., representing weighedor unweighted usage metrics as discussed above). Thus, a more usedproduct may have a greater effect on the vector than a less usedproduct.

The server 140 may next access a database of claims data and a similarclaimant list (block 404). The similar claimant list (block 406) may begenerated using some or all of the claims data previously received bythe server 140 (or other back-end 104 component). As customers of aninsurance company submit claims for losses, the server 140 (or otherback-end 104 component) may store claim data about each claim in adatabase 146. Claim data may include what kind of claim was submitted(e.g., homeowners, renters, flood, etc.), what kind of loss or damagewas reported (e.g., flooding, fire, burglary), additional details aboutwhere the loss or damage occurred (e.g., flooding in the basement,rodent damage in the attic, termite damage to porch, etc.), etc.Additionally, claim data may include or be associated with biographical(e.g., name, insurance policy number), demographic (e.g., age, gender,marital status, number of children/pets, etc.), economic (e.g., yearlyhousehold income, net worth, etc.), and geographic (e.g., the address ofthe claimant, latitude and longitude of the claimant, the elevation ofthe claimant, etc.) information about the claimant. Alternatively, thebiographical, demographic, economic, and geographic information aboutthe claimant may be stored separately from the claims data but bereferenced by the claims data. The claim data may be used in conjunctionwith any of a number of known algorithms such as collaborativefiltering, cluster models, or search-based filtering to generate thesimilar claimant list.

Collaborative filtering may be implemented, for example, to create andcompares N-dimensional vectors for each claimant and customer, where Nis the number of entries for biographical, demographic, economic, andgeographic information about the claimants and customers. For example, aclaimant vector for Claimant A may include the following:28 age+1 marital+0 children+1 pet+$60000 income+30.2837° N lat+97.7325°W long+489 ft elevationA claimant vector for Claimant B may include the following:40 age+1 marital+2 children+2 pet+$100000 income+41.9480° N lat+87.6557°W long+597 ft elevationSimilarly to the claimants in the claims data, an N-dimensional vectormay be created for U, the user being provided a recommendation. Forexample:32 age+1 marital+1 children+2 pet+$150000 income+32.7478° N lat+97.0928°W long+430 ft elevationThe vectors for Claimant A and Claimant B may be compared (e.g., using amathematical operation such as the sine or cosine of the vectors) to thevector for U to determine which vector is most similar to U. Of course,it will be understood that many more (e.g., hundreds, thousands, etc.)claims and claimant vectors may be compared to the vector for U.Further, it will be understood that while an eight-dimensional vector isused in the example above, the N-dimensional vector may have a muchhigher number of dimensions (e.g., tens, hundreds, etc.). Aftercomparing the user being provided a recommendation to the claimantvectors, the similar claimant list may be created to include all of theclaimants that have vectors of sufficient similarity (e.g., the resultof a mathematical operation used to compare the vectors is above athreshold value) to the vector for the user being provided arecommendation.

Additionally or alternatively, the similar claimant list may be createdusing a cluster model to assign each of the claimants to a cluster ofclaimants with similar characteristics. For example, claimants who aremarried, have children, and earn between $100,000 and $200,000 annuallymay be clustered together and claimants who are single, earn between$50000 and $100000 and live in Illinois may be clustered together.Further, claimants may be clustered according to the type or age oftheir homes, for example, claimants with fifteen-year-old two storyhomes with basement may be clustered together and claimants incondominiums may be clustered together. Clusters may be created usingknown clustering or other learning algorithms. In such a cluster model,the similar claimants list may include the claimants in the same clusterand as the user being provided a recommendation. A search-basedfiltering algorithm may be used in addition or as an alternative. Asearch-based algorithm may draw on characteristics of the user beingprovided a recommendation (e.g., address, demographics, type/age ofhome, etc.) and search through the database of claimants to determineother customers that have similar characteristics. The search algorithmmay rank each result according to search relevance according to knowntechniques. Each customer may therefore have an associated ranking ofeach claimant by search relevance. Thus, the similar claimant list mayinclude the claimants with a search relevance above a threshold value.As discussed herein, the generation of the similar claimant list may beperformed in real-time as the user accesses the system 100 orasynchronously. It may be advantageous to restrict the similar claimantlist comparison automatically or by user control. For example, it may beadvantageous to compare the usage of the user to the claims of a subsetof similar claimants (e.g., similar claimants with similar types ofhomes 130). Further, the restriction may be inserted before and/or afterthe comparison is made (e.g., streamlining the similar claimant list ifthe similar claimant list is longer than a threshold number, narrowingthe recommended products list to allow filtering by a subset of thesimilar claimant list, etc.).

With the similar claimant list and the claims filed by the similarclaimants, the server 140 may identify products related to the loss ordamage in the claims (block 408). FIG. 5 is an exemplary illustration500 of how various intelligent home system products may be related to aparticular type of loss or damage. Generally, intelligent home systemproducts may be designed to prevent damage or loss (e.g., automaticlocks, automatic storm doors); detect a source of damage or loss and toameliorate the loss (e.g., security cameras, water sensors to detect aflooded basement), ameliorate damage (e.g., a gas kill switch to shutoffgas during a fire), detect theft and assist in the recovery of a lostitem (e.g., tags on items such as RFID tags, etc.), etc. Thus, eachintelligent home system product may be associated with a source of theloss (e.g., fire, water, etc.) and how the product may have affected theloss event (e.g., preventing, detecting). Of course, it will beunderstood that there may be other sources of loss, ways a product couldaffect the loss event, and intelligent home system products than thoseshown in FIG. 5. Referring again to FIG. 4, the server 140 may identifythe product(s) that may have affected the losses claimed by theclaimants on the similar claimants list and add those product(s) to therecommended products list.

The server 140 may also analyze the customer's usage data to determinethe location of each use (block 410). As discussed above, many of thefront-end components 102 are disposed within a home 130 (e.g., a control110, etc.). However, some intelligent home system products may be usedoutside the home 130 as well as inside the home 130. For example, a usermay use a remote display 116R and/or a remote input device 118R (e.g., asmartphone, tablet computer, etc.). Additionally, a user may monitormore than one home 130 (e.g., a user may own a main residence and avacation property, a user may be a property manager or landlord usingthe intelligent home system to monitor properties) with intelligent homesystem products.

The location of the use may be determined by a number of known methodsincluding analyzing the internet protocol (IP) address of the product.For example, the IP address of the remote display 116R and/or remoteinput device 118R may indicate that the remote display 116R and/orremote input device 118R connected to the network 132 through one of thewireless connection 124 or wired connection 126, indicating use outsidethe house 130, rather than using the network 108 and connection 112,indicating use inside the house 130. Additionally, the system 100 maydetermine that there are two or more homes 130 associated with theuser's account (e.g., there are two or more sets of related IPaddresses). The location of the use may also be determined by analyzingthe geographic coordinates of the remote display 116R and/or remoteinput device 118R as determined by components of the remote display 116Rand/or remote input device 118R (e.g., a Global Positioning Systemreceiver of a smartphone, etc.). The geographic coordinates of the usemay be compared to the geographic coordinates of the home 130. If thegeographic coordinates of the use differ from the geographic coordinatesof the home 130 by a certain amount (e.g., >twenty feet), the server 140may detect that the use occurred outside the home. The geographiccoordinates of the use may also be determined using a flag or othersettable variable (e.g. a “home identifier” flag) to associate variousproducts 106-118 with a particular home 130. The home identifier flagmay be a globally unique flag for each home 130 in the system 100 orunique for each home 130 associated with the user's account.

If the system 100 determines that one or more uses occurred outside thehome 130, the system 100 may add one or more products to the recommendedproduct list based on the claims data. For example, if a user's usageinformation indicates that the user owns two or more homes 130, thesystem 100 may perform a similar claimant list comparison as discussedabove for each of the homes 130 separately because the needs of the twohomes 130 may be different (e.g., one home 130 is a small, vacationbeach house and the second home 130 is a larger, two-story home in asuburb). Additionally, if the usage indicates that the user has twohomes 130 but does not use a remote display 116R and/or remote inputdevice 118R, the system 100 may add a remote display 116R and/or remoteinput device 118R to the recommended product list. Further, if a user'susage indicates the user is a landlord or property manager, the system100 may add to the recommended product list a remote display 116R and/orremote input device 118R with additional capabilities to aggregateinformation and alerts about the multiple properties.

After compiling a recommended products list, it may be advantageous tofilter the recommended product list to avoid redundant recommendations(block 412). The server 140 may analyze the ranked product list todetermine if one or more of the products on the recommended productslist is already being used in the user's home 130. It may beadvantageous to remove such products from the recommended products list.Additionally or alternatively, it may be advantageous to reorder therecommended product list by any of a number of known techniques in orderto favor certain products relative to others. For example, therecommended product list may be reordered by favoring the mostprofitable products, favoring the most popular products, favoringproducts that would more easily integrate into the user's currentintelligent home system (e.g., if a user currently has water sensors butno security system, recommending automatic water valves over motionsensors or cameras), etc. When the recommended product list is ready, itmay be displayed to the customer (block 414). Portions of the method 400may or may not be executed in real-time. For example, the analysis,loading, and comparing activities discussed in relation to blocks402-412 may be conducted periodically independently of a customer'sinteraction with the user interface 220 described above. In order tomake more efficient use of the server's 140 computing resources, it maybe advantageous to perform the activities associated with blocks 402-412asynchronously (i.e., not in real-time) and display the one or morerecommended products. However, some servers 140 may have sufficientcomputing resources to perform more of the activities associated withthe method 400 in real-time.

FIG. 6 is an exemplary diagram of an intelligent home system 600installed in a home that may collect customer usage data to send to aserver 140 (or other back-end component 104). A user 602 may remotelyinteract with the intelligent home system 600 using a mobile device 604.Such a mobile device 604 may include, for example, a mobile phone 604A,a tablet computer 604B, etc. The intelligent home system 600 may includean intelligent lock 606. Such an intelligent lock 606 may include asensor to detect the state of the intelligent lock 606 (e.g., locked orunlocked) and/or a control mechanism to respond to commands from theintelligent home control system 100 (e.g., a remote command to lock thedoor). The intelligent home system 600 may include one or moreintelligent home control panels 608 such as the downstairs home controlpanel 608A and the upstairs intelligent home control panel 608B as shownin FIG. 6. The intelligent home control panel 608 may include a displayand/or input device (e.g., a touchscreen). Such an intelligent homecontrol system panel 608 or a mobile device 604 may be used to receiveuser input to the intelligent home control system 100 as describedabove. The intelligent home system 600 may include one or more lights610 (e.g., the three lights 610A, B, C as shown in FIG. 6). Suchintelligent lights 610 may include a sensor component to detect, forexample, when a light 610 is on or off, and/or a control component toallow remote control of the intelligent light 610. The intelligent homesystem 600 may also include a camera or motion sensor 612. Theintelligent home system 600 may further include an intelligent outlet614. Such an intelligent outlet 614 may include a sensor component todetect, for example, when the outlet 614 is on or off, and/or a controlcomponent to allow remote control of the intelligent outlet 614. Theintelligent outlet 614 may be coupled to a television 614A and/or gamesystem 614B. The intelligent outlet may therefore detect when thetelevision 614A and/or game system 614B are turned on or off and/orallow the user 602 to remotely power on or power off either or both ofthe television 614A and game system 614B. The intelligent home system600 may also include one or more air conditioner 616, window sensor 618,refrigerator 620, dishwasher 622, and/or robot vacuum cleaner 624. Someor all of the air conditioner 616, window sensor 618, refrigerator 620,and dishwasher 622 may be intelligent such that they are able to send asensor data to the intelligent home system 600 and/or receive commandsfrom the intelligent home system 600. Any possible components for theintelligent home system 600 that are not installed and are associatedwith a claim made by a another customer may lead to a recommendation toinstall the appropriate intelligent home system 600 component asdescribed herein. For example, if the user 602 is atwenty-eight-year-old single male who lives alone in an urban area, themethod 300 described above may compare the products used by the user 602to the products associated with claims made by other young, single malesin similar neighborhoods. In another example, the method 300 describedabove may compare the products used by the user 602 to the productsassociated with claims made by claimants in similar homes (e.g., twostory homes with a basement and similar square-footage, etc.). By way ofillustration, if customers similar to the user 602 have made claims forlosses caused by theft, the method 300 may recommend to the user 602 acamera 612.

Throughout this specification, plural instances may implementcomponents, operations, or structures described as a single instance.Although individual operations of one or more methods are illustratedand described as separate operations, one or more of the individualoperations may be performed concurrently, and nothing requires that theoperations be performed in the order illustrated. Structures andfunctionality presented as separate components in example configurationsmay be implemented as a combined structure or component. Similarly,structures and functionality presented as a single component may beimplemented as separate components. These and other variations,modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of thesubject matter herein.

Additionally, certain embodiments are described herein as includinglogic or a number of routines, subroutines, applications, orinstructions. These may constitute either software (e.g., code embodiedon a machine-readable medium) or hardware. In hardware, the routines,etc., are tangible units capable of performing certain operations andmay be configured or arranged in a certain manner. In exampleembodiments, one or more computer systems (e.g., a standalone, client orserver computer system) or one or more hardware modules of a computersystem (e.g., a processor or a group of processors) may be configured bysoftware (e.g., an application or application portion) as a hardwaremodule that operates to perform certain operations as described herein.

In various embodiments, a hardware module may be implementedmechanically or electronically. For example, a hardware module maycomprise dedicated circuitry or logic that is permanently configured(e.g., as a special-purpose processor, such as a field programmable gatearray (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) toperform certain operations. A hardware module may also compriseprogrammable logic or circuitry (e.g., as encompassed within ageneral-purpose processor or other programmable processor) that istemporarily configured by software to perform certain operations. Itwill be appreciated that the decision to implement a hardware modulemechanically, in dedicated and permanently configured circuitry, or intemporarily configured circuitry (e.g., configured by software) may bedriven by cost and time considerations.

Accordingly, the term “hardware module” should be understood toencompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that is physicallyconstructed, permanently configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarilyconfigured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a certain manner or toperform certain operations described herein. Considering embodiments inwhich hardware modules are temporarily configured (e.g., programmed),each of the hardware modules need not be configured or instantiated atany one instance in time. For example, where the hardware modulescomprise a general-purpose processor configured using software, thegeneral-purpose processor may be configured as respective differenthardware modules at different times. Software may accordingly configurea processor, for example, to constitute a particular hardware module atone instance of time and to constitute a different hardware module at adifferent instance of time.

Hardware modules can provide information to, and receive informationfrom, other hardware modules. Accordingly, the described hardwaremodules may be regarded as being communicatively coupled. Where multipleof such hardware modules exist contemporaneously, communications may beachieved through signal transmission (e.g., over appropriate circuitsand buses) that connect the hardware modules. In embodiments in whichmultiple hardware modules are configured or instantiated at differenttimes, communications between such hardware modules may be achieved, forexample, through the storage and retrieval of information in memorystructures to which the multiple hardware modules have access. Forexample, one hardware module may perform an operation and store theoutput of that operation in a memory device to which it iscommunicatively coupled. A further hardware module may then, at a latertime, access the memory device to retrieve and process the storedoutput. Hardware modules may also initiate communications with input oroutput devices, and can operate on a resource (e.g., a collection ofinformation).

The various operations of example methods described herein may beperformed, at least partially, by one or more processors that aretemporarily configured (e.g., by software) or permanently configured toperform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanentlyconfigured, such processors may constitute processor-implemented modulesthat operate to perform one or more operations or functions. The modulesreferred to herein may, in some example embodiments, compriseprocessor-implemented modules.

Similarly, the methods or routines described herein may be at leastpartially processor-implemented. For example, at least some of theoperations of a method may be performed by one or more processors orprocessor-implemented hardware modules. The performance of certain ofthe operations may be distributed among the one or more processors, notonly residing within a single machine, but deployed across a number ofmachines. In some example embodiments, the processor or processors maybe located in a single location (e.g., within a home environment, anoffice environment or as a server farm), while in other embodiments theprocessors may be distributed across a number of locations.

The performance of certain of the operations may be distributed amongthe one or more processors, not only residing within a single machine,but deployed across a number of machines. In some example embodiments,the one or more processors or processor-implemented modules may belocated in a single geographic location (e.g., within a homeenvironment, an office environment, or a server farm). In other exampleembodiments, the one or more processors or processor-implemented modulesmay be distributed across a number of geographic locations.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, discussions herein using wordssuch as “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,”“presenting,” “displaying,” or the like may refer to actions orprocesses of a machine (e.g., a computer) that manipulates or transformsdata represented as physical (e.g., electronic, magnetic, or optical)quantities within one or more memories (e.g., volatile memory,non-volatile memory, or a combination thereof), registers, or othermachine components that receive, store, transmit, or displayinformation.

As used herein any reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular element, feature, structure, or characteristicdescribed in connection with the embodiment is included in at least oneembodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in variousplaces in the specification are not necessarily all referring to thesame embodiment.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “coupled” and“connected” along with their derivatives. For example, some embodimentsmay be described using the term “coupled” to indicate that two or moreelements are in direct physical or electrical contact. The term“coupled,” however, may also mean that two or more elements are not indirect contact with each other, but yet still co-operate or interactwith each other. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,”“including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, areintended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process,method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is notnecessarily limited to only those elements but may include otherelements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method,article, or apparatus. Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary,“or” refers to an inclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example,a condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true(or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or notpresent) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (orpresent).

In addition, use of the “a” or “an” are employed to describe elementsand components of the embodiments herein. This is done merely forconvenience and to give a general sense of the description. Thisdescription, and the claims that follow, should be read to include oneor at least one and the singular also includes the plural unless it isobvious that it is meant otherwise.

This detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and doesnot describe every possible embodiment, as describing every possibleembodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. One could implementnumerous alternate embodiments, using either current technology ortechnology developed after the filing date of this application.

What is claimed:
 1. A method for recommending intelligent home systemproducts to a user of an intelligent home system comprising: recording,with one or more processors, usage data about the user's utilization ofthe intelligent home system, wherein the intelligent home systemincludes a plurality of installed devices, and wherein the usage data isassociated with a user account information, includes usage data abouteach of the plurality of installed devices, and is stored on anon-transitory computer-readable medium; receiving, at one or moreprocessors, claims data about a plurality of insurance claims for lossesto property, wherein each insurance claim includes information about theloss and information about the claimant, wherein the information aboutthe loss includes one or more of a type of claim, a type of loss, or alocation of loss; analyzing, with one or more processors, the usage dataand claims data to identify one or more intelligent home system devicesto recommend to the user to install into the intelligent home system;and presenting to the user, with one or more processors, the one or moreintelligent home system devices to recommend.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein analyzing the usage data and claims data to identify one or moreintelligent home system devices to recommend includes comparing theusage data to a similar claimants list.
 3. The method of claim 2,wherein the similar claimants list is assembled using one or more ofcollaborative filtering, a cluster model, or a search-based algorithm.4. The method of claim 2, wherein analyzing the usage data and claimsdata to identify one or more intelligent home system devices torecommend further includes indentifying products related to the claimssubmitted by one or more similar claimants on the similar claimantslist.
 5. The method of claim 2, wherein the similar claimants list isassembled based on the user account information.
 6. The method of claim1, wherein analyzing the usage data and claims data to identify one ormore intelligent home system devices to recommend includes recommendingan intelligent home system product based on one or more locationsassociated with the usage data.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereinanalyzing the usage data and claims data to identify one or moreintelligent home system devices to recommend includes not recommendingintelligent home system devices that are in the plurality of installeddevices.
 8. A computer system comprising: a processor; and a programmemory storing executable instructions that when executed by theprocessor cause the computer system to: record usage data about theuser's utilization of an intelligent home system, wherein theintelligent home system includes a plurality of installed devices, andwherein the usage data is associated with a user account information,includes usage data about each of the plurality of installed devices,and is stored on a non-transitory computer-readable medium; receiveclaims data about a plurality of insurance claims for losses toproperty, wherein each insurance claim includes information about theloss and information about the claimant, wherein the information aboutthe loss includes one or more of a type of claim, a type of loss, or alocation of loss; analyze the usage data and claims data to identify oneor more intelligent home system devices to recommend to the user toinstall into the intelligent home system; and present to the user theone or more intelligent home system devices to recommend.
 9. Thecomputer system of claim 8, wherein the executable instructions thatwhen executed by the processor cause the computer system to analyze theusage data to identify one or more intelligent home system devices torecommend include instructions to compare the usage data to a similarclaimants list.
 10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the similarclaimants list is assembled using one or more of collaborativefiltering, a cluster model, or a search-based algorithm.
 11. Thecomputer system of claim 9, wherein the executable instructions thatwhen executed by the processor cause the computer system to analyze theusage data to identify one or more intelligent home system devices torecommend include instructions to indentify products related to theclaims submitted by one or more similar claimants on the similarclaimants list.
 12. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the similarclaimants list is assembled based on the user account information. 13.The computer system of claim 8, wherein the executable instructions thatwhen executed by the processor cause the computer system to analyze theusage data to identify one or more intelligent home system devices torecommend include instructions to recommend an intelligent home systemdevices based on one or more locations associated with the usage data.14. The computer system of claim 8, wherein the executable instructionsthat when executed by the processor cause the computer system to analyzethe usage data to identify one or more intelligent home system devicesto recommend include instructions to not recommend intelligent homesystem devices that are in the plurality of installed devices.
 15. Anon-transitory, computer-readable medium storing executable instructionsthat when executed by a processor of a computer system cause thecomputer system to: record usage data about the user's utilization of anintelligent home system, wherein the intelligent home system includes aplurality of installed devices, and wherein the usage data is associatedwith a user account information, includes usage data about each of theplurality of installed devices, and is stored on a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium; receive claims data about a plurality ofinsurance claims for losses to property, wherein each insurance claimincludes information about the loss and information about the claimant,wherein the information about the loss includes one or more of a type ofclaim, a type of loss, or a location of loss; analyze the usage data andclaims data to identify one or more intelligent home system devices torecommend to the user to install into the intelligent home system; andpresent to the user the one or more intelligent home system devices torecommend.
 16. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 15,wherein the executable instructions that when executed by the processorcause the computer system to analyze the usage data to identify one ormore intelligent home system devices to recommend include instructionsto compare the usage data to a similar claimants list.
 17. Thenon-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein thesimilar claimants list is assembled using one or more of collaborativefiltering, a cluster model, or a search-based algorithm.
 18. Thenon-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein theexecutable instructions that when executed by the processor cause thecomputer system to analyze the usage data to identify one or moreintelligent home system devices to recommend include instructions toindentify devices related to the claims submitted by one or more similarclaimants on the similar claimants list.
 19. The non-transitory,computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the similar claimants listis assembled based on the user account information.
 20. Thenon-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 15, wherein theexecutable instructions that when executed by the processor cause thecomputer system to analyze the usage data to identify one or moreintelligent home system devices to recommend include instructions to notrecommend intelligent home system devices that are in the plurality ofinstalled devices.